Investiture Speech by President Gregory H. Williams

University of Cincinnati New Student Convocation with Investiture, Fifth Third Arena

Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010

To our new students and their loved ones, I extend my whole-hearted welcome to the University of Cincinnati family. I especially thank you for allowing me to combine my formal installation as President with your induction into our campus community.

To our other distinguished guests….Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, Ohio Board of Regents Chairman Jim Tuschman, our own Board of Trustees and Board Chairman, Sandra Heimann, distinguished public officials, colleagues from other institutions visiting today, and to our own faculty, students, and staff, thank you for being here for this double celebration. 

Although I have served as a university president elsewhere, I have never had a formal investiture before. In fact, I did not think we needed one here at UC. But members of our campus community suggested that new beginnings are important to celebrate. And so I agreed, but requested, for cost-savings and efficiencies, that it be incorporated into an existing event.

Now that I am standing here, I feel a lot more sympathy for the Oscar winners we see each year at the Academy Awards. They get 45 seconds. This morning, the Convocation Committee has allotted me 7 minutes. (And like most Oscar winners, I may fudge a little on the time.)

I do want to take a few moments, for some “thank you’s.” I would not be standing here today if there had not been certain individuals who stood by me, who encouraged me, who motivated me and strengthened me.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Sara, and our four children for supporting me as my career has moved us from the Midwest to Washington, D.C., to Iowa, to Ohio, to New York and back to Ohio.

Also, I cannot let any day pass, let alone a day like today, without remembering and thanking Miss Dora Weekly Terry. There are 1,500 freshmen in our College of Arts and Sciences who know who Miss Dora is, because this summer, their professors made my autobiography a reading assignment. If you read the book…(you did, didn’t you?)… you understand that Miss Dora was “my truly mother,” who recognized my poverty and need. An African American housekeeper with an eighth-grade education, she opened her home to me and my brother, Mike, raised us, and shared what little she had with us.

I also want to thank my father, the late James A. “Buster” Williams. Despite the many problems he faced….including alcoholism and the rigid discrimination of 1930s, 40s, and 50s….he taught me to dream. He encouraged me to go to college and become a lawyer. Despite the barriers he faced, he saw unlimited possibility in our nation. And he did try to prepare me for the future.

My father often said to me: “Son, you’ve got to be ready when that tap on the shoulder comes.”  Some of you may have even heard me mention this fatherly advice on other occasions. As a boy, I did not always understand what my father meant. But as an adult, I have come to understand that this mantra was about recognizing opportunity and seizing opportunity when it comes.

Today, as we look to the future of the University of Cincinnati, this is a moment when I choose to turn the tables. This is a moment, above all others, when I am reaching out to tap on shoulders. …

I tap on the shoulders of our new students and challenge you to grasp this moment…because today you set out on a new phase of your lives. I encourage you to take advantage of the great new beginning that an education at an exciting university like the University of Cincinnati extends to you.

I tap on the shoulders of each member of this great university. I urge all of us to play a role in UC’s momentum to take advantage of this new beginning and new leadership.

That leadership extends to not only me, but three new deans, and a distinguished new provost who heads our academic affairs, Dr. Santa Ono, who arrived on September 1.

I tap on the shoulders of our senior leaders, our faculty, our staff, our friends and our partners to join me in implementing a new strategic plan … a plan I announce for the first time today. This blueprint for our future challenges us to transform UC into one of the best universities in the world.

In recent months, the University of Cincinnati has gained a number of accolades that show we are indeed on the rise. U.S. News placed us on its list of the Best National Universities and described us as “up and coming.” The Times of London added UC to its Top 200 World University Rankings. The Chronicle of Higher Education called us a “research heavyweight.” Forbes named UC one of the world’s most beautiful campuses. (I couldn’t agree more). Princeton Review selected UC as a “green university” – the only public institution in Ohio to achieve this distinction. 

For the record, I want to thank my predecessors, especially Drs. Henry Winkler, Joseph Steger and Nancy Zimpher for their work leading up to such wonderful recognition.

As we look into the future, we want even more of these external validations. In the year 2019, UC will celebrate a milestone….a milestone that takes two centuries to achieve. Nine years from now, UC will mark the bicentennial of its founding. In fact, one of our most distinguished graduates, Tom Humes, a member of our Board of Trustees, has been named to lead the planning for this celebratory year.

As this hallmark date draws closer, we have a unique opportunity…a tap on the shoulder some might call it…to make sure that our university is positioned among the most prominent institutions in our nation. Thus, with this historic beacon in mind, I announce today, our strategic plan, called UC2019► –Accelerating Our Transformation.

Many of you here are familiar with UC|21, the university’s previous plan. UC2019► takes us in a new direction, while building on the past. UC|21 was about defining. UC2019► is about achieving.

You may ask, “Achieving what?” If you take away nothing else from my address today, I hope that you will remember the two main outcomes that I challenge us to accomplish:

Number 1: External validation, which UC deserves based on its strengths. We will measure our success against the elite set of peers represented by the Association of American Universities and The Top American Research Universities, also known as the Lombardi report.  We will move up the ladder as we benchmark ourselves among them, using clear, focused metrics.

Number 2: Prioritizing and targeting our resources. We will invest our resources in those areas in which we excel. We must organize this university and its budget around our excellence and strengths, to achieve the external recognition that we seek.

UC2019► challenges us to make sure, that by the end of the decade, our peers across the country and around the world will acknowledge and know that the University of Cincinnati stands shoulder to shoulder with the finest universities anywhere.

In the spirit of UC2019►, within the next five years, I call on our university to accelerate our transformation:

1. By leveraging our global prominence in co-op education to create unique university-business partnerships. As the founder of co-op more than 100 years ago, UC has a distinct advantage in creating its next iteration. New models of co-op, internships and service learning need to focus on innovation and the generation of new ideas.
2. By embracing and enhancing our capacities not only to innovate but also to collaborate. This fall, I hope to announce an example of this as the EPA taps UC and Cincinnati as a world leader in water quality. We will work together to create an effective government-university-business partnership to ensure safe water for our nation.
3. By counting sustainability among our key measures of success. We cannot delay on an issue so important to future generations.
4. By doubling the number of our student awards. You, our students here before me, can compete with the best. This year, five of UC’s best and brightest students will travel abroad as part of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship Program. New and returning students, I challenge you to turn five Fulbrights into 10. Consider becoming a Rhodes Scholar, a Truman Scholar or a Marshall Scholar. Be prepared to do what you need to do, and we will help you!
   
5. Closely related to 4 – I invite our world-class faculty to join me in doubling the number of UC members in the National Academies and doubling the number of our national and international faculty awards. We cannot be timid about showcasing our talents!
   
6. By doubling the number of our students studying abroad and enhancing their education through international experiences. As a demonstration of my commitment to global engagement, I am going to begin by allocating an additional $500,000 toward this goal.
7. Closely related to our global reach is our diversity. The Princeton Review has ranked us among America’s Top 20 most diverse campuses. But we can do better. We are developing a Five-Year Enrollment Plan as well as a Diversity Plan that will help to assure the alignment of diversity with learning and excellence.
8. By increasing the number of our National Merit Scholars. All of our new students and their families know how difficult it is to pull together the resources necessary to begin the college journey. I will allocate $500,000 toward UC2019 Presidential scholarships for Merit Scholars and Honors students as well as first-generation students.
9. By increasing our private support. To this end, I have asked our UC Foundation to improve our alumni giving rate from its current 11 percent to least 18% – 18 point 19 percent to be precise, echoing our founding date. In an age of scarce resources, UC must reach out more broadly to our more than 200,000 living alumni. For total giving from alumni and other supporters, I am setting our target at $125 million a year.
10. By examining our administrative structure. I will call on an outside consultant to take a close look at our administrative structure to make sure it is as efficient and effective as possible, and to make sure that it allows us to achieve the goals of our strategic plan.

I have just given some key examples. In a seven-minute speech (OK, more like 13-minutes), I do not have time enough to describe the entire roadmap we have outlined. For more detail, there is a written plan available on the Web and in a handout available on the tables near the exits as you leave this afternoon.

To put our plan into action immediately, I have tapped on the shoulder of our new Provost, Dr. Ono. Tomorrow, he will take the next step to move our new strategic plan forward. He will meet with UC faculty at the first Faculty Senate meeting of the year to discuss the implementation of our new aspirations. I also want to note, and thank, Faculty Chair Richard Harknett, and our faculty, for taking up a discussion of “our transforming university” at the very first Faculty Assembly, which immediately follows this ceremony at Great Hall.

We have a beacon just nine years from now…. A bicentennial that will launch UC into its third century. As we approach that watershed, our collective success as an institution will be measured by our ability to meet our UC2019► goals. And likewise, our individual success will be gauged by our ability to contribute to the collective success. In other words, each of us must be held accountable for meeting these goals.

As my dad told me, you have to be ready when that tap on the shoulder comes. I want you to join me in accelerating our transformation… our transformation from UC|21 to UC2019►…our transformation from defining to achieving…our transformation from “up and coming” to the “best.”

The University of Cincinnati is poised to earn the recognition it deserves. The University of Cincinnati is poised and ready to soar.

Once again, I want to welcome our new Bearcats and their families. Thank you.

Watch full Convocation with Investiture Ceremony